Reply : Anthropocentrism, education and the (post-)Anthropocene

Kurzfassung/Abstract

One of the greatest challenges – if not the greatest – facing humankind at the beginning of the 21st century is arguably the state of our planet and, coupled with this, our relationship with the natural environment. Most, if not all, other concerns – however significant – are necessarily secondary in this regard. The human impact on the environment has been, and continues to be, enormous. Human population growth and advances in technological ability and control continue producing previously non-existent environmental problems. What is at stake here is nothing less than the survival of the Earth in its present state, as being inhabitable, and therefore also human survival itself. If this is correct, it follows that one of the greatest priorities – perhaps the greatest – of academic research, scientific, philosophical, educational and other, should be into how to arrest and possibly reverse the present decline. It is heartening, therefore, to find an international cast of eminent educational philosophers and theorists, scientists and sustainability activists contributing to this timely, all-important issue of on_education.